This weekend I attended the delightful ScienceOnline conference in London, a collection of bloggers, press officers, scientists, writers, film makers and more. It was nice to see familiar faces such as Andy Lewis and David Colquhoun and even better to put faces to names I know only by browser and inbox - Gimpy, Jack of Kent, and more.
Then there were those I missed - such as the legendary Ed Yong, reliably touted as the best young science writer in the UK. Something Ed tells me time and again is to run an open thread to meet my readers, who, by and large, I know nothing about. So, in Ed's words:
Who are you? Do you have a background in science? Are you interesting lay-person, practising scientist, journalist, sentient virus, or something else? Are you a close friend, colleague, acquaintance or stranger?
Don't be shy, join the conversation. This thread is all about you!
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Wow you got to the scienceonline? I'm so jealous...by the time I got to hear about it, it sold out.
For the purposes of the thread I'm a practising scientist with a slight fixation on microbiology, specifically bacterial/antiobic interactions.
Sorry I missed you, Frank - you always seemed to be busy talking to others, so never got a chance to introduce myself. Yes, it was good to finally meet an unmasked Gimpy...
It was a great day, although the room was a bit hot and stuffy (not the speakers, of course)!
My degree is in Electronics but it seems a very long time ago. Although not *real* science, it was accepted as being close enough at the Friday evening gathering!
Recently started blogging on all sorts of pseudo science, but mainly chiropractic at the moment.
I'm a science presenter for a small company in South West England that visits schools with a large inflatable planetarium. I have a Masters in Natural Sciences and Information Engineering, but that was 20 years ago now. Since then I've been a technical writer, h2g2 editor, zoo-keeper, database developer and, for three years, a QI 'Elf' (I am currently QI's research curator.) I'm also working on a science-based comedy thriller for young adults, if you can imagine such a thing.
Very much enjoying your ScienceBlogs posts - keep up the great work!
Been really enjoying the blog.
I'm a post-doctoral microfluidics/chemistry researcher at a university to the north of london. And a complete stranger.
Good to meet you and get a chance to talk the other day, Frank.
I also think I am correct in saying that you would have taken the prize for the most piercings on show at the meeting...! Though of course that may only be telling us that academic science gatherings are relatively piercing-lite.
Hmm... I feel another "comparative sociology of science" student project coming on there...
Well, you know who I am.
Scientist. Fellow alumnus. Could talk the rear-end off a Donkey.
Good catching up with you again at Science Online, great conversation, shame you couldn't stick around for the post meeting shenanigans, but I have seen photographic evidence that you made a good efforts towards this end prior to the meeting ;-)
Good luck with the SSW efforts - turn that website around!
I am a teen librarian at a public library in Fort Wayne, Indiana. My undergrad degree is in science. I was in graduate school studying optometry and considering a PhD course in vision science when I decided my true calling was librarianship. I came to Sciencepunk via Pharyngula.
Very nice idea. I'm a physicist (post doc) researching in a UK university. I do statistical physics rather than all the fancy particle stuff that people tend to expect. Statistical physics is much better covering so many interesting things. I've tried blogging about it to spread my enthusiasm but never really settled on a level/style. Very interested in science communication though - that's probably how I came across this blog.
If one more person tells me they were rubbish at physics at school I might just snap...
Doug, I wasn't rubbish at physics - the physics was rubbish. If it's any consolation, now I'm old enough to know that what we did wasn't really a true representation of what physics is about, I like it again.
I'm a linguist (doing a PhD), and most of us linguists think of ourselves as scientists, though you hard core guys may not ;)
I'm a computer programmer with a maths degree so more of an interested lay-person really. A good few people in my business and social circles are homeopathers, supplement pill and brain-gym advocates, etc. While it's genuinely fascinating to try to work out what makes them tick, my personal definition of "de-tox" is to read blogs like this in order to shake off their bullshit, so thanks for helping with sanity maintenance!
Dammit! I even saw you in the pub and then forgot to come over and say hi!
You know who I am. I read your blog for the writing - it's economical, pithy, amusing and clear. Looking forward to the book.
Wow you got to the scienceonline? I'm so jealous...by the time I got to hear about it, it sold out.
I'm (currently) a games design student in Malaysia. I'm a frequent visitor here. I love reading up on science.
I wasn't a science major in school and quite frankly I really wasn't that interested in it back then. I hated my schools (yeah, I was in more than one) when I was younger -- and growing up, well, I've only learned to despise them even more. My beef with the schools that I was in is that they don't make the learning fun. Personally, I think science is fun and interesting, especially when I'm fully aware of its applications and importance; I never learned that in school. My interest came in only 5 years ago, thanks to people like the MythBusters, Penn & Teller, PZ Myers and Phil Plait.